Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Orinonco Delta

Was realllly hoping to load pics today, but it's not going to happen... due to the card reader. Bumma.
The Delta was spectacular! Who'd a thought I could Kayak 8 days. However, we all did it! I'm excited now to attempt the Kayak on some of the rivers back home. The only downside is that here you don't have to worrry if it rain, cause it's warm! and you can pack so much less, cause it's warm! Loving the ease in the opportunities that the weather is giving us.
Although I shouldn't say it was all ease, cause it's one thing to Kayak in the rain, it's another one when your hammock gets wait and you are also soaked! That was one night last week when our attempted original campsite was flooded out, so we stayed in a rickety old steel shelter that, yes, was not actually a shelter. Of course that was one of the nights it rained.
The Worao people make amazing Moriche tree leaf roofs, so we mostly stayed underneath one of those with places to tie our hammocks. Honestly, this is an amazing way to experience a country. We actually stayed in people's homes about 3 or 4 of the 7 nights; which consists of a roof and a place to tie your hammock. This trip definitely needs pics. The scenes on the river were from a magazine. We mostly Kayaked through narrow slow moving rivers. Sooo relaxing. Sooo beautiful. So amazing. I can say tho that I definitely love river Kayaking over sea Kayaking anyday, now that I've done both. Sea Kayaking is extremely hard work, with the main reward being your destination. River Kayaking however is the reward, as it's such a pleasure to pass by all the stuff along the way. You feel the distance you're making. We had a Worao man named Pina along the whole time as a guide, wrestling snakes from trees!.. finding 24hr spiders under brush... ripping the tail off scorpions... playing with tarantulas.... etc etc etc.. more than I could have expected on the trip!
I paddled with Laura again for the whole trip and enjoyed that and her imensely. We were the only chica boat, as in the only all girl boat. We kept up pretty good considering. Would have loved to bring home a handmade hammock that the Worao people make by hand, but it's a bit bulky to carry home. Takes them a month to make and they charge about $60.
Sleeping in hammocks on the trips is becoming more of a pleasure. It's all about getting the angle of the hammock right. Can string a hammock in like 5 min and pretty much get the mosquito net up in that time too. Would love to show you my hammock at sunrise pic, however,.. next time.
We did everything thing from sleeping with pigs, chickens, and dogs running around underneath of us.. to sleeping at a fancy screened in Lodge for Christmas eve/day. It was a nice treat after we'd been attacked/eaten alive by the mosquitos. We were fairly warned, however still were not mentally prepared. The first camp was almost mosquito unbearable, but pretty well everyday got better. Howling monkey, twocan *sp parrots, an aligator hunt/catch/hold, fishing pyranas, swinging rope, breakfast served from the boat followed by doing dishes with the infamous environmentally friendly blue soap off the side of our kayaks. Lots of first that happened on this trip.. ie. never been pulled behind a boat in a string of Kayaks before! Like 8 kayaks strung out. What a relief that was though, cause we'd already paddled at least 7 or so hours that day, and would have been like 4 more... it turned into 1.
I cannot summarize adequately the ups and downs of the trip, but our groups seems completely different now having experienced all that together. We've only known each other for like 3 weeks, but we feel as close as a family. It's a pretty weird phenomenon.
Thanks for reading! Thanks to those who sent Christmas updates!
A few days back at camp now before heading off to Caripe, where we'll hike and camp for 7 days. Spanish, I suppose is progressing but not muy rapido. Slowly but surely...
Love from Am :)

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Mercy Ship entries will be found in March - June 2012 entries.
Before that are Amber's other adventures. Just so you know!
If you missed seeing some of the Venezuela pics, I am attempting to add them in in the next few weeks to my past entries.